Top 5 horses to follow at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival

Hi bettingexperts and here we’re going to take a look at five horses that will make or break my punting at Cheltenham. In 2018, We start off with an obvious one in the Arkel That’s Footpad. Now he was a useful graded hurdler hard to place in the top level, but very useful nonetheless, But he has been a revelation since going over fences.

Winning both his starts and the way he’s jumped for a novice has been quite remarkable and he’s gained at least a length or two lengths at every fence and he’s not broken stride in the way he’s jumped. Often, when you see these younger horses, they tend to prop into them which doesn’t matter in victory and defeat in small fields when they’re going their own gallop. But at Cheltenham, when they’re going to go a proper pace, jumping counts for plenty and the way Footpad has jumped has been so impressive. Now you can crab the form and says only one in small fields on soft ground, and obviously this will presumably be a bigger field on much better ground, but he’s the sort of horse.

He comes from a top yard. It’S you know a big race on the first day and he has the potential to develop into a very heavily backed Irish banker and odds-on favorite, and I think the current offer now around 6/4 is well worth taking. If you have that in your portfolio now, you could be very well placed, There’s been very little standout so far against him, and it could be a small field this year if he scares them all off. My second horse is another one. That’S unbeaten in the UK of Nicky Henderson’s called Mr Whipped. Now he was only workmanlike in landing, long odds on on his UK debut at Kempton, making all the running and leading firm riding to make sure.

But perhaps we saw why he was unimpressive in winning when he won the Leamington Spa at Warwick. Last time out, he canted and traveled all over some useful rivals there and then idled badly when hitting the front having the race one needed to be driven right out to make sure I think, there’s loads more in the tank with him and wherever he runs at The festival at the moment, as I say in the Albert Bartlett on Friday, I think he’s going to be a big runner. I think better ground will help him he’s got lots of scope to keep improving as he gets more experienced and settles down, but I’m really confident that he’ll run well when he tackles some top class company.

The third horse on my list is a horse of Colin Tizzard called Elegant, Escape and he’s been penned in for the formal national hunt chase on Tuesday. Now the stable has had something of a stop-start season. In fact, they had 36 losses in December, which is obviously was a cause for concern, but probably pretty typical at that time of year, for them to go fairly quiet and things are a bit more encouraging. Now this one’s got excellent form at three miles. Since he’s gone over fences this season with Black Corton who’s a horse, I must admit: I’ve got completely wrong. He’S not stopped winning and not stopped.

Improving and Elegant Escape be mixing it with him over three miles. Looking at complete and thorough stayer, all he does is gallop. He jumps really well. I think he’ll get a positive ride in the four miler and I think it’ll be a really good one that gets past him. I think he’s one of them sort of naps of the week and I really confident expect him to run well.

Our fourth horse is a darker one. A Nigel Twiston-Davis trained handicapper called Ballyhill. Now we’ve followed him off a cliff this season, leaving it behind. On a couple of occasions.

He was extremely unlucky, a couple back at Aintree when he fell with the race at his mercy. I think he’d won by 20 lengths that day and we gained compensation last time at Cheltenham. Now the key to this he’s gone up in the weights of winning that, and I think people probably want to oppose him, because I think well, he wasn’t that impressive. He didn’t win by that far. He was all out up the hill and he’s much higher up the weights now.

But when you watch that race back last time for him to win, it was a remarkable performance. He pulled really hard, which is not unusual for him and when he made his ground up, he came six wide into the heat of the race and I was amazed he sustained to run up the hill to get things done, There’s loads more to come and the Key here this will be a huge field. He presumed at the moment he’s going for the brown advisory plates on Thursday at 4:10 and there’ll be a big field. There go real gallop, I think he’ll be dropped out, hopefully at the inside this time, he’ll love the better ground, that’s likely on the day, and I think he’s going to take a lot of holding in one of these big handicaps He’s a strong recommendation and one To be with, And our fifth horse is, Might Bite who’s, the bookmakers make or break horse of the week he runs he’ll be favored in the Gold Cup on Friday. He’S won both his starts this season after a few world documented problems, and he hasn’t impressed everyone, and I have to admit that the King George victory at a short price, I thought was particularly underwhelming.

I know people will say he got a row on the lead with Bristol De Mai a long way out and perhaps the winning margin flattered the runners-up. But that form does not look good at all to me. Double Shuffle and Tea For Two are both pretty exposed and not grade one horses and for Might Bite to be around about a 3/1 chance now. I know it’s not the best year again this year, but there are a clutch of horses who could improve past him and I think he’d be one that I won’t be alone him wanting to take on on Friday in the Gold Cup. Good luck, bettingexperts and we’ll be back for more nearer the time.